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The Rebellion— Its Causes and Consequenoes. 



A^ SFEECH 



DELIVERED BY 



HON. J. M. ASHLEY, 



AT 



COLLEGE HALL IN THE CITY OF TOLEDO, 



TUESDAY EVENING, NOV. 26, 1861. 



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TOLEDO: 

PELTON AND WAGGONEK, STEAM PKINTEES, BLADE OFFICE, 
1861. 



ao(Ut«ErpeiiioO bnB aeairaO atl noilledoH dilT 



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W«8t. r-es. HlBt. BOO 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Hon. J. M. Ashley : — 

':, ■ * Dear Sir: — The undersigned request you to address the 
citizens of Toledo on the subject of the present rebellion, at College Hall, at 
such time as suits your convenience, prior to your leaving for Washington. 
Toledo, Nov. 19, 1861. 

WM. KRAUS, 
CHAKLES KENT, 
M. R WAITE, 
W. BAKER, 
JAMES MYERS, 
JONATHAN WYNN, 



R. C. LEMMON, 
A. W. GLEASON, 
VALENTINE BRAUN, 
D. A. PEASE, 
ALEX. REED, 
HORACE THATCHER, 



LYMAN PARCHER, 
A. H. HATHAWAY, 
W. W. JONES, 
F. A. JONES, 
PELEG T. CLARK, 
DAN. SEGUR. 



Toledo, Nov. 21, 1861. 
Gentlemen : — In reply to your favor of the 19th inst., inviting me to address 
the people of this city on the subject of the present rebellion, I will name Tues- 
day evening next, Nov. 26th. 

RespectfiiUy, 



To R. C. Lemmon, Esq., and others. 



J. M. ASHLEY. 



1/ 



THE REBELLION— ITS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES. 



Mr. I'resident and Oentlemen : 

In response to an invitation from a 
number of my fellow-citizens, I appear 
before you to-night to present as briefly 
as I can my views of the rebellion, its 
causes and consequences. And here let 
me say that the remarks which I pro- 
pose to make will be in the main but a 
recitation of historical facts. Facts are 
stubborn things, and I prefer to use 
them in exaininmg the question upon 
Avhich I am to speak to-night, rather 
than resort to declamation. I do it as a 
duty, and to demonstrate to you beyond 
all dispute that the cause for which we 
are lighting is the cause of Justice, and 
Union, and Constitutional Liberty. If 
I could not do this I would ask no man 
to join the army, for I could not ask a 
man to enter the army to fight for in- 
justice and oppression. I need hardly 
say to you that we are in the midst of a 
rebellion unlike any which in our histo- 
ry has preceded it, or indeed in the his- 
tory of the world. There have been 
many rebellions and revolutions since the 
establishment of civilized governments, 
l)ut this is the first attempted revolution 
having for its avowed object the exten- 
sion and perpetuity of human slavery. 
All rebellions whijeh have preceded this 
have been professedly to secure the 
rights and liberties of the people. — 
Therefore of all rebellions this is the 
most causeless and criminal which the 
history of the world records. 

The seeds of this rebelUon were first 
sown so long ago as the year 1620, when 
aDutch ship entered the mouth of James 
River in the then infant colony of Vir- 
ginia, and committed the infamous crime 
of selling twenty black men as slaves. — 
The British Government fostered and 
protected the seed then sown, guarded 
and protected it by law and added year- 
ly to it more than a hundred fold by 
fresh importations up to the date of the 
establishment of our independence. — 
The leading men of the revolution saw 
and, like true men, acknowledged the 
inhumanity, the injustice and the crime 



of slavery. Jefferson said, when speak- 
ing of this question, that "he trembled 
for his country when he remembered 
that God was just," and in the original 
draft of the Declaration of Indei)endence 
he charged as one of the grievances of 
which we justly complaied atthehandsof 
the mother country that of forcing slavery 
upon us. These are his priceless words : 

"He has waged a crxiel war against 
human nature itself, violating the most 
sacred rights of life and liberty in the 
persons of a distant people, who never 
offended him, captivating and carrying 
them into slavery in another hemisphere, 
or to incur a miserable death in trans- 
portation thither. This piratical war- 
fare, the opprobium of infidel p )M'ers, is 
the warfare of the Christian King of 
Great Britain, determined to keep open 
a market where inen shall be bought 
and sold. He has prostituted his nega- 
tive by suppressing every legislative at- 
tempt to prohibit or restrain the execra- 
ble commerce, and that this assemblage 
of horrors might want no fact of distin- 
guished dye, he is now exciting these 
very people to rise in arms among us, 
and to pui'chase that liberty of which he 
has deprived them, by murdering the 
peoj)le on whom he also obtruded them ; 
thus paying off former crimes commit- 
ted against the liberties of one 2>eople 
with crimes w^hich he urges them to 
commit against the lives of another." 

That this truthful count in the indict- 
ment against Great Britain Avas stricken 
out of the Declaration I regret, as all 
liberty-loving men have regretted, but 
that it was stricken out, and at such a 
time and mider the circumstances tells 
you better than I can tell you of the 
danger which imperils the life of a na- 
tion that fosters and protects a privileged 
class. 

Since the establishment of oui- inde- 
pendence the existence and groAving 
strength of this slavcholding privileged 
class has been a source of anxious solici- 
tude on the part of leading patriots and 
statesmen, not only in the North, but 



also in the South. To the careful study 
and iavestigation of the question which 
has caused the present rebellion I have 
given the best years of ray life, and with 
most men who have impartially exam- 
ined it, I have been satisfied for nearly 
ten years that the day was speedily ap- 
proaching when the question was to be 
settled by the American people wheth- 
er slavery, to use the language of Pres- 
ident Lincoln — " should be put where it 
the people would rest in the belief that 
it was in the course of ultimate extinc- 
tion," or the United States become a 
elaveholding empire. 

That I have been disappointed in some 
of my conclusions touching the final dis- 
position of this question and the ulti- 
mate action of the slave masters them- 
selves, I am fi'ank to admit. Certainly 
ten or twelve years ago I did not sup- 
pose it possible that the old democratic 
party to which I then belonged and 
which I venerated for its great leaders 
and liberal principles could ever be di- 
vided and destroyed as it has been by 
the slave power, and I felt confident un- 
til after I took my seat in Congress for 
the first time that whatever disposition 
might be made of this question it would 
at last find a peaceful solution. Before 
the close of the 36th Congress I chang- 
ed my mind and came reluctantly to the 
conclusion that nothing but the direct 
interposition of Providence could save 
us as a nation and people from a bloody 
<a. and perhaps servile war. In the 
first speech which I made in that Con- 
gress, speaking of the slaveholding con- 
spirators, I said that 

"Their professed devotion to law and 
order — the decisions of courts and their 
fidelity to the Constitution and the 
Union simply meant that they would 
obey such laws as they desired enacted, 
submit to such decisions of courts as 
they could dictate,and be faithful to the 
Constitution and the Union so long only 
as they were entrusted by the people 
with the administration of the Govern- 
ment and the interpretation of the Con- 
stitution." And I added : 

"When this ceases, as I trust and be- 
lieve it will on the 4th of March, 1861, 
theii- fidelity to law will cease, their love 
of the Union will cease, and their new- 
born veneration for that '•'august tribu- 
nal^'' of which we have heard so much 



of late — the Supreme Court — will also 
cease ; and they wiU be, if their threats 
are put into execution, in open rebellion 
against the Government, and enemies of 
the Constitution and the Union." 

No careful observer of events could 
have failed to foresee for the past few 
years that both in the North and in the 
South public opinion has been gradually 
but surely undergoing such a change on 
the subject of slavery, that sooner or 
later the question would have to be met 
and fairly settled. All compromises in 
the shape of the most humiliating con- 
cessions made by the North to the 
South had failed to satisfy the imperi- 
ous demands of the slave power, and I 
need hardly add that the present rebel- 
lion and attempted revolution was ine- 
evitable without absolute submission on 
the part of the North. The change of 
public oi^inion throughout the two sec- 
tions is in itself a revolution. On the 
part of the loyal citizens it has been a 
revolution of peace and good will by 
the mode pointed out and prescribed 
by the Constitution, a revolution by 
means of the ballot-box. On the part 
of the conspirators and rebels it has 
been from the first a revolution of force 
and fraud, and now ends in an appeal to 
arras. 

It is, then, as I shall show you, a 
contest that has for its motive power on 
one side liberty, and on the other slave- 
ly. It presents a question to which 
there can be but two sides, and he who 
is not for liberty and the Union is 
against them. Politicians and even 
Cabinet Ministers may declare, as they 
have done and are doing, that there is 
no connection between slavery and this 
rebellion, but I tell you and hope before 
I take my seat to prove to those of you 
who do not now acknowledge it, that 
slavery is the germ from which this re- 
bellion sprang — the motive power and 
main spring of its action — and that, but 
for slavery, there had been no such re- 
bellion in the United States to-day. — 
Most of you understand this, I trust, al- 
ready — the leading men of Europe un- 
derstand it, and I beUeve the time is 
close at hand when compromising edi- 
tors and pohticians will be unable long- 
er to deceive any respectable number of 
the people. 



For more than thirty years the slave 
masters cf the south have been plotting 
treason and preparing for this rebellion. 
In the convention which passed the or- 
dinance of secession in South Carolina, 
this was openly proclaimed and the 
boast repeatedly made that for thirty 
years they had been looking to the con- 
summation of the treason they were 
then enacting. I will read you two or 
three extracts from the speeches made 
by their leading men in that conven- 
tion. 

Mr. Rhett said: "It is nothing produced 
by Mr. Lincoln's election, or the non-execu- 
tion of the fugitive slave law. It is a matter 
which has been gathering head for thirty 
years." 

Mr. Parker said : " It is no spasmodic ef- 
fort that has come suddenly upon us, but it 
has been gradually culminating for a long 
series of years." 

Mr. Inglis said : "Most of us have had this 
subject under consideration for the past thirty 
years " 

Mr. Keitt said : "I have been engaged in 
this movement ever since I entered political 
life." 

This testimony ought at least to be 
good as against the conspirators and 
their northern allies. 

If their oavh statements are to be 
credited, from the day Gen. Jackson 
crushed the South Carolina nulification 
rebellion of 1831-2 to the outbreak of 
the rebellion of 1861, the slaveholders 
of the rebel states have been conspiring 
to destroy this Government. To the 
truth of history I appeal to make good 
their own declarations and to sustain 
this charge. 

During the second administration of 
Gen. Jackson, the hostility of Calhoun 
to that great and good man became 
open and undisguised, and when Mr. 
Y an Buren was nominated for the Pres- 
dency in 1836, by the friends of General 
Jackson, Mr. Calhoun and his friends, 
although claiming to be democrats, op- 
posed his election, and South Carolina, 
under his lead, voted for Mr. Mangura 
of North Carolina, then, and for many 
years thereafter,a whig U.S. Senator from 
that State. This defection of Calhoun 
and his friends alarmed all the North- 
ern Presidential aspirants and the whole 
race of small politicians who always 
hang upon their skirts for the sake of 
place and power. This alarm must have 
become almost a panic, for even Mr. 



Van Buren, who was triumphantly 
elected in 1836 and desired are-election, 
became quite as anxious as Buchanan 
and that class of Northern Presidential 
candidates to conciliate Mr. Calhoun 
and the small but powerful class of 
whom he was the chosen representative. 

Gen. Jackson said when he put down 
the nuliifiers of 1832, that their next ef- 
fort to break up the Union would be on 
the slavery question. That prophetic 
prediction is now a historical fact. The 
Northern Presidential aspirants of both 
the old parties and all the leading poli- 
ticians understood this matter well, and 
under the pretext of saving the Union, 
they united in declaring that such con- 
cessions as the South asked ought to be 
granted. These concessions were agreed 
upon by politicians on the plea of saving 
the Union, so when Mr. Van Buren was 
inaugurated he seized that occasion to 
give in his adhesion to the demands of 
the slaveholding conspirators by declar- 
ing that if Congress passed any law de- 
signed to interfere with slavery in the 
District of Columbia he would veto it. 
This shameless pledge, unasked as it 
was by any democratic convention, or, 
indeed, by any body of men, publicly, 
startled the thinking men of the nation 
who saw in it a bold and unscrupulous 
bid for the united vote of the slave in- 
terest. This movement was not with- 
out its desired effect, for Mr. Calhoxm 
returned nominally to the democratic 
party, supported Mr. Van Buren's ad- 
ministration and South Corolina voted 
for him in 1840, when he was defeated 
by Gen. Harrison, 

The Artherton "gag," as it wm just- 
ly termed, a rule known as the 21st 
rule, was adopted by the House of Rep- 
resentatives on demand of the slave pow- 
er. This rule refused to allow any pe- 
titions from the people on the subject of 
slavery to be received by their own rep- 
resentatives and completed the humilia- 
tion of the North during the adminis- 
tration of MrVanBui en, an<l ojioned wide 
the gate which leid to the fatal road 
down which we have been travelling as 
a nation and people at a friglitful pace 
ever since. 

The death of General Han-ison in one 
short month after his inaugui-ation and 
the accession of John Tyler, then Vice 
President, to the Presidency, afforded 



6 



an opportunity which was eagerly em- 
braced by the slaveholding nullifiers, to 
take possession of the Government and 
administer it for their exclusive benefit. 
That John Tyler proved a traitor to the 
party which elected him, is recorded in 
history. That he is a traitor to his 
country to-day, loill be recorded in histo- 
ry. This weak and unscrupulous man 
became the willing tool of the slavehold- 
ing conspirators and permitted them to 
dictate and control the policy of his ad- 
ministration. 

On the death of Abel P. Upshur, of 
Virginia, who succeeded to the office of 
Seci'etary of State after the resignation 
of Mr. Webster, John C. Calhoun, the 
admitted chief and ablest of the slave- 
holding conspirators, was called by Mr. 
Tyler from his seat in the Senate of the 
United States to take Mr. Upshur's 
place. You who are familiar with polit- 
ical history will remember that when 
Mr. Calhoun went into that office he as- 
tonished and shocked the moral sense of 
the civilized world by declaring that he 
only accepted the position in order that 
he might the more certainly consum- 
mate the schemes of the slaveholders, 
which were first to secure the annexa- 
tion of Texas, then Cuba, Mexico and 
Central America, and thus extend and 
strengthen the slave power so that it 
mi^ht control the country while it re- 
mained united, and when they ceased to 
control it, that they might have power 
successfully to divide it. He did not 
hesitate to make public and defend his 
scheme of annexing Texas to secure it to 
slavery. In his dispatches to our Min- 
isters in England and France he declar- 
ed this to be the policy of our Govern- 
ment. That Mr. Calhoun was a bold 
and able man all admit, and he went at 
his work with a directness of purpose 
that places in unen^dable contrast the 
dodging and cowardly conduct of North- 
em statesmen who, while professing to 
represent the interests of free labor and 
the rights of man, sacrificed them with 
out scruple at the bidding of the slave 
power. John Quincy Adams warned 
the nation before Mr. Calhoun became 
Secretary of State of this scheme. But 
the North was so absorbed in the pur- 
suit of wealth and new enterprises that 
it did not heed the warning ot that able, 
pure and far-sighted statesman, and by 



the votes of Northern men claiming to 
represent free labor Texas was annexed 
with slavery, and this part of Mr. Cal- 
houn's scheme to strengthen and per- 
petuate the rule of a jjrivileged class and 
increase their influence in the Govern- 
ment was consummated on the night of 
the 3d of March which closed the mem- 
orable administration of John Tyler. 

By the management of Mr. Calhoun 
the question of the annexation of Texas 
was made to enter largely into the cam- 
paign of 1844, It decided the fate of 
candidates in the Baltimore convention 
of that year and defeated Henry Clay 
because he yielded to the imjjortunities 
of slaveholders and wrote the nevei'-to- 
be-forgotton Alabama letter. Although 
I had not then attained my majority by 
more than two years, I attended the 
democartic convention which met at 
Baltimore in 1844 and witnessed the po- 
litical movements by which the slave- 
holders triumphed in that convention. 
I confess that I did not then fully com- 
prehend how or why Mr. Van Buren 
was there defeated when every Demo- 
cratic State Convention in the United 
States, with but three or four exceptions, 
(and those the smallest States,) had in- 
structed their delegates to vote for the 
renomination of Van Buren and John- 
son, the old ticket defeated by Harrison 
and Tyler in 1840, and indeed 1 may say 
with truth that I never fully compre- 
hended it imtil after the Presidential 
election of 1 852. After making the mat- 
ter a subject of diHgent search and in- 
quiry, I became satisfied that the slave 
interest was the power behind the throne 
and that that must be a spurious Dem- 
ocracy which sustained and defended 
the rightfulness of human slavery. 

In 1850 the country had forced upon 
it the so-called compromises of that year. 
The action of Southern Conventions and 
the position assiamed by Southern states- 
men and parties in many of the States 
in 1852 and the action of the Democrat- 
ic and Whig National Conventions of 
1852, when viewed in the light of histo- 
ry, and the first acts of Pierce's admin- 
istration confirmed me in my convictions 
— which until then had only been sus- 
picions — and I declined longer to act 
with the party of my choice. 

There is a historical incident of impor- 
tance connected with the canvass of the 



year of 1844 to which I w-ish to call your This accomplished, the master spirit 
special attention as throwing some light who moved the main sprino-s of both 
on the present movement. In order Conventions now set himself 'to work to 
that we may understand the matter secure beyond all doubt an endorsement 
clearly, I in\'ite you to go back with me from Polk of their proslavery scliemes. 
and look into the Democratic National For this purpose a distinguished South- 
Convention of 1844 and also the Tyler erner was dispatched on a%ecret mission 
Convention composed of Government to Kuoxville, Tenn., to see Mr. Polk 
officials and slaveholdiug conspirators, and present him the alternative of adopt- 
Both of these Conventions assembled on ing their policy or beino- defeated which 
the same day in the city of Baltimore. — was substantially this, that unless he 
The Democratic National Convention (Polk) gave in his adhesion to their 
was regularly called by the Deniocratic schemes an electoral ticket with John 
National Committee. The Tyler Con- Tyler at its head would be formed and 
vention was called by the direction of voted for in all the States, securing by 
Mr. Calhoun. Although I then thought, the patronage of the Government and 
as everybody seemed to think, that the and the influence of the conspirators 
Tyler movement was a great farce and enough votes in each of the States to 
a good joke, the sequel will prove that hold the balance of power, and by 
it was one of the most important and dividing tlie Democratic vote, as they 
wiley moves of the conspirators. This could, Mr, Clay would obtain a plurali- 
Convention nominated John Tyler for ty and thus be elected. Mr. Polk saw 
President and adjourned without mak- this clearly and, as subsequent events 
ing any nomination for Vice President, proved, yielded to their demands. — 
Id the regular Democratic Convention On the return of the messenger to whom 
there was a bitter contest over the I have referred, Mr. Tyler withdrew 
adoption of the rules. Hon. R. M. San- from the canvass and the whole power 
ders, of North Carolina, moved the and patronage of his administration were 
adoption of the rule known as the two- o]>enly used to secure the election of 
thirds rule. The honest Van Buren men Mr. Polk, who, with all this couibination 
opposed, and the conspirators and their to favor him, was barely elected, and 
allies supported, the motion and finally would have been defeated without it. 
carried it. The Convention was thus I have thus shown you that the farce, 
placed completely in the power of the as it was called, of nominating John Ty- 
conspirators, although they were large- ler was not so great a farce after all, but 
ly in the minority. that it was one of the shrewdest and 

You know the history of that Conven- most successful moves ever made by a 
tion. Mr. Van Buren had written a desperate minority on the political chess- 
letter against the annexation of Texas, board in this country. 
and for that he was defeated in a Con- One of the first acts of Mr. Polk after 
vention where nearly four-fifths of the his accession to power was to comply 
delegates were instructed to go for him. with the programme of the nullifiers 
Thus you see how formidable these con- who demanded a new organ in ])lace of 
spirators were so long ago as 1844. Af- the Globe^ which was edited by Francis 
ter three or four days balloting, in P. Blair, the bosom-friend of Jackson 
which these men with consummate tact and the enemy of the nullifiers. For 
so divided their votes between Cass, this purpose the Madisonian^ the late 
Buchanan, Woodbury and others, as to Tyler organ, was purchased, its name 
prevent a nomination and also blind the changed to the Union and Mr. Ritchie, 
country, as they did, to their true pur- the editor of the Richmond Enquirer^ 
poses, the Convention at last yielded, then, as now, the organ of the conspira- 
utterly worn out, and the conspirators tors, was selected as its Editor-in-Chief, 
succeeded by threats and promises in Mr. Calhoun and all the nullifying con- 
fairly driving the Convention, a majori- spirators, who were driven from the 
ty of whom had voted to nominate Mr. Democratic party by Gen. Jackson, 
Van Buren, into the nomination of Jas. were now received into full fellowship, 
K. Polk and forchig them to adopt such and from that day to the meeting of the 
a platform as they dictated. Charleston-Baltimore Convention these 



men dictated and controlled its policy, compromise Congress. Immediately 
The cession to Great Britain of one- after his death, Jefferson Davis and his 
half of the territory of Oregon together confederates in the Senate and House of 
with the heautiful island of v an Couver, Representatives met together in the city 
in violation of the Democratic platform of Washington and agreed upon a Con- 
of 1844 and the public pledge of Mr. stitution for a Southern Confederacy. — 
Polk who, with the entire party, declar- That Constitution was in the main just 
ed our title to the whole "clear and un- such a Constitution as the traitors have 
disputable," the war with Mexico, the adopted at Montgomery, Alabama, ex- 
acquisition of California, and the ofter cept that the Constitution agreed upon 
by this Government to Spain of two in 1850 specially provided for the acqui- 
hundred millions of dollars for the Is sition of Cuba, Mexico and Central A- 
land of Cuba were acts which, if stand merica, while the Montgomery Consti- 
Ing alone, ought to have alarmed the tution is silent on these points. At the 
country as to the ultimate designs o meeting to which I have alluded Mr. 
the slave power, but when taken in con- Davis was selected by the conspirators 
nection with all the acts of the Polk ad- as the first President of the new Con- 
ministration ought to have aroused eve- federacy. 

ry patriot in the nation as one man to I intend in a moment or two to quote 
resent and prevent their treasonable largely from General Quitman, of Mis*., 
schemes. because, after the death of Mr. Calhoun, 

The election of General Taylor in he was regarded by me as the ablest 
1848 was a severe and imexpected blow and boldest man in the South who was 
to the hopes of the nuUifiers. That engaged in the then contemplated r«- 
stern old patriot could neither be intirai- bellion. He was a politician of tlje 
dated nor pursuadcd to favor their strictest Southern-rights school, a de- 
schemes and the celebrated batch of fender of every fillibustering conspiracy, 
compromises known as the "Omnibus a professed believer in the doctrine of 
Bill," were defeated in the House of Rep- the Divine right of the stronger to en- 
resentatives by his influence. Unfortu- slave the weaker and an open advocate 
nately for the country in this important of a Southern Confederacy. He was 
crisis of our history General Taylor died the intimate friend of Calhoun and the 
and Mr. Filmore became the acting most active and untiring of the secession 
President. Under his administration leaders. It is now over two yeaas since 
the compromise measures which had his death, but the present and future 
just been defeated under Gen. Taylor policy of the conspirators so far as can 
were revived and passed in separate be judged is exactly what he urged. — 
bills. I need not now refer to the means Let me now read to you some important 
resorted to to secure the passage of extracts from a few of the many letters 
these odious and obnoxious acts, or to written and received by him more than 
the motives which prompted Northern ten years ago. These letters speak for 
men to give them their support — suffice themselves and develope fully the policy 
it to say that these acts bore their legit- of the conspirators. Gen. Quitman, on 
imate fruit and justly destroyed both the 28th of September, 1850, only 18 
the men and the parties that supported days after the passage of the compro- 
and endorsed them. mises of that year, thus writes to ex- 

On the lih day of May, 1849, at the Governor McRea, of Miss., then a mem- 
city of Jackson, in the State of Mississip- ber of Congress : 

pi, a meeting of slaveholding conspira- " I have not acted without first looking at 
tors was held upon the suggestion of tlie ground before me, and I take the privil- 
Mr. Calhoun. The scheme to form a ^^ ^^ commimicating to you in confidence, 
Southern Confederacy there took form '^i^i,^ "^iS^ZT^n^^eTertSZ 
and shape and the secession party was efiective remedy for the evils before us, but 
formally organized. The programme secession. * * * * * * 
then laid down the conspirators of 1860- "My idea is, that the Legislature should 
61 have attempted to carry out. ^^^^ ^ convention of delegates, elected by the 

■vr^ n n tit. x ^i, i f. people, fully empowered to take into consider- 

Mr. Calhoun died about the close of ^tiouom- federal relations, and to change or an- 
the long session of the ever-memoriable nid them, to adopt one organic law to suit such 



9 



new relations as they might establish, to pro- 
vide for making compacts with other States, 
and that in the meanwhile an effective milita- 
ry system be established, and patrol duties most 
rigidly enforced. ***** 

" In the meantime every patriot should leave 
no point untouched, where his influence can 
be exerted. Che^r on the faithful, strengthen 
the weak, disarm the siibmissionists; send & fiery 
cross through t?ie land; and every gallant son 
of Mississippi to the rescue." 

You will see by this that while the 
North was being humiliated and demor- 
alized by shamelessly surrendering to 
the demands of the slaveholders, they 
were secretly plotting tor the overthrow 
of the nation. 

On the 29th of September of that 
that year, (only nineteen days after the 
passage of the compromise measures 
which we were told was to be the last, 
and that the South would never again 
exact any additional guaranties for sla- 
very,) Gen. Quitman, in writing to Gov. 
Seabrook, of South Carolina, said ; 

'Without having fully digested a programme 
of measures which I shall recommend to the 
Legislature, it may be of service to you to 
know that I propose to call a regular conven- 
tion, to take into consideration our federal re- 
lations, yit'lWx full powers to annul the federal 
compact, establish relations with other States, 
and adftpt our organic l-aw to such new rela- 
lalions:"" ****** 

" Having no hope of an effectual remedy 
for existing and prospective evils but in sepa- 
ration from the Northern States, mv view of 
State action wUl look to " secession. ' 

On the 17th of December, 1850, Gov. 
Seabrook, in answering Gen. Quitman, 
said : 

"I candidly confess to you that I am advo- 
cating the irumediate action of the legislature 
in oriier to suggest the first Monday in De- 
cember next for the time, and Montgomery, 
Alabama, as the place of meeting of Congress. 
I am rejoiced that the House resolved to sug- 
gest to our Southern States the propriety of 
meeting in Congress at Montgomery on the 
2d of January, 1852. * ■* * * 

"For arming the State $350,000 has been 
put at the disposal of the Governor. * * 

I shall be happy to know that the time and 
place of the proposed Congress will be agree- 
able to Mississippi. 

"If our movement be seconded by her, I 
have good reason for the belief that Alabama, 
Florida and Arkansas will soon follow the 
patriotic example." * * * * 

Gen. Quitman thus writes to Col. 

John S. Preston of South Carolina on 

the 29th March, 1850: 
******** 

"The pinn proposed by the address of the 
Central Committee, which I have forwarded 
to you, is, that the Committee demand redress 



for past aggressions, and guaranties against fu- 
ture assaults upon our rights; and in the 
meantime to provide for meeting our syn:ipa- 
thizmg sister States in a Southern Congress, 
The proposed redress is : 

1st. A repeal of the law suppressmg the 
slave trade in the District of Columbia. 

2d. Opening of the Territories to the ad- 
mission oi slaves. 

3d. The permission of slavery in Califor- 
nia south of 36'' 30." 

" The guarantees to be amendmente to the 
Constitution explicitly protecting slavery from 
JwstHe interference by Congress or States, 
and to restore equal taxation direct and indi- 
rect.'''' 

" In case the address and guarantees be re- 
fused, the States to make formal propositions 
to her Southern sisters for a separate confede- 
racy, and to unite with any number of them 
sufficient to secure national independence.'" 
* * * * » ♦ * * * 

" I concur with you in the opinion that the 
political equality of the slaveholding Stales is 
incompatible with the present confederation 
ae construed and acted on by the majority and 
that the present union and slavery can- 
not CO-EXIST." 

Gov. Means, of South Carolina, thus 
writes to Gen. Quitman on the 15th of 
May, 1851 : 

" There is noAv not the slightest doubt that 
the next Legislature will call the convention 
together at a period during the ensuing year 
and when that convention meets the State 
will secede. * * * y^^ J^J.g ^jj^- 
ious for co-operation, and also desne that some 
other State should take the lead, but from re- 
cent developments, we are satisfied that Bouth 
Garoliua is the only State in which sufficient 
unanimity exists to commence the movement. 
We will therefore leml off even if we are to 
stand alone." 

Col. Gregg, of South Carolina, in 
writing to Gen. Quitman on the 15th of 
May, 1851, thus encourages the seces- 
sion party who were straining every 
nerve to elect Jeft'erson Davis Governor 
of Mississippi on the direct issue of se- 
cession : 

" Let them (tlie secessionists) contend man- 
fully for success, and if beaten in the election 
they will form a minority so powerful in mor- 
al influence, that when South Carolina se- 
cedes, the first drop of blood that is shed will 
cause an irresistible popular impulse in their 
favor, and tlie s>ibmis.'<ionists will be crushed. — 
Let the example be set in Mississippi, and it 
will be followed ni Alabama and Georgia, — 
Imparting and receiving courage from each 
other's efforts, the Southern rights men will 
be ready to carr}' everything before then'!, in 
all the tliree States the moment the first blow 
is struck in South Carolina.'''' * * * 

Gen. Quitman thus writes to Gov. 
Means of South Carolina, on the 25th 
of May, 1851 : 





10 



" Experience has fully demonstrated that 
united action cannot be had; the frontier 
Slave States are even now indicating a dispo- 
sition to cling to the Union at all hazard of 
their slave institution. They will not in my 
opinion unite in an effective remedy, unless 
forced to choose between a Northern and South- 
ern Confederacy r 

On the 9tli of June, 1861, Gov. Sea- 
brook, of South Carolina, thus vt^ritesto 
Gen. Quitman : 

" The course of the convention will depend 
somewhat on our sister Southern States. If 
they affirm the right of secession and the non- 
easisfence of a power to jyreDent a State from 
&eercmng it.. * * * Should South 
Carolina strike a decisive blow, may she con- 
fidently rely on the undivided support of her 
present friends in your State V" 

And again on the 15th of July of the 
same year Gov. Seabrook thus discour- 
ses to Gen. Quitman : 

"If this -scheme fail, what then?" Let the 
State pre claim to the world that at time 
to be designated, say six months, she will 
withdraw from the Union. K Mississippi be 
riot prepared to follow her example, a simple 
annunciation on her part, that any hostile at- 
tempt direct or indirect, by Congress, to pre- 
vent her (South Carolina) irom exercising the 
rights of an independent nation, or to keep 
her in the Confederacy, would be considered 
by your Commonwealth, a subversion of the 
fundamental principles on which the States 
Confederated, and consequently a full release 
for her obligations in the Union ?" 

You see by these quotations that this 
conspiracy is of no recent date. Ten or 
fifteen years ago. Gen. Quitman concei- 
ved and confided to others the scheme 
which the rebels of 1801 have attempt- 
ed to enact, and I lay these facts before 
you for your serious reflection and to 
prove to you that the destruction of 
our Constitution and Union has been 
seriously contemplated for many years, 
and that, too, without reference to any 
of the pretended grievances now com- 
plained of by the South. 

In 1851 open and avowed disunion 
candidates were nominated and run for 
Governors in the States of Georgia and 
Mississippi, and one or two other South- 
em States. In Mississippi, Jefferson 
Davis, who was then a democratic U. 
S. Senator from that State, resigned his 
seat in the Senate, went home to Mis- 
sissippi, and became the disunion candi- 
date for Governor, on an open and 
avowed disnnion platform. Senator 
Foote, also a democratic Senator from 
that State, resigned his seat and became 
the Union candidate, Davis was defea- 



ted by a small vote, as were also the 
open disunion candidates in all the states 
except in the State of South Carolina, 
which elects her Governor and State 
officers by the legislature. 

In 1852, General Pierce was elected 
President over Gen. Scott. In this con- 
test the Whig party breathed its last, 
because false to the principles of free- 
dom. The success of the so-called dem- 
ocratic party with Pierce as its chief 
was almost as fatal. It lingered along 
in a sickly condition until 1860 when it 
too, gave up the ghost. 

Jefferson Davis was selected by Pres- 
ident Pierce for his Sec. of War,although 
it was well known to Mr. Pierce, and 
to the whole country, that Mr. Davis 
was an avowed secessionist, and had 
just been defeated for Governor of Mis- 
sissippi, on that issue. Davis, by his posi- 
tion, was enabled to advance the schemes 
of the conspirators, by appointments, by 
favoritism in the army, and by his coun- 
sels in the Cabinet. And in 1856, had 
Fremont been elected, Davis would have 
attempted to have seized the govern- 
ment. Unfortunately, for the country, 
Buchanan was elected President, and 
a maiority of the Cabinet he called 
around him were either avowed seces- 
sionists, or willing instruments in the 
hands of the conspirators. By this ac- 
of Mr. Buchanan, the old democratic 
party was completely demoralized by 
the domination of the disunion element 
in its counsels so that at the Charleston- 
Baltimore Convention, it was perma- 
nently disrupted and the organization 
divided and destroyed. 

The long and bitter contest for the 
Speakership of the House of Represen- 
tatives, at the opening of the 36th Con- 
gress, was the death struggle of the 
slave power to keep possession of the 
Legislative department of the Govern- 
ment, during the residue of Mr. Bu- 
chanan's term of office, so that in case 
of defeat in the Presidential election of 
1860, which the conspirators had then 
resolved upon — unless they could dictate 
the candidate at Charleston, they might 
by having control of the House Com- 
mittees, as they had of the Committees 
in the Senate, be fully prepared for eve- 
i-y movement necessary to consummate 
their treason. 



11 

"^ It is now conceded by those whom it Major Anderson, a loyal and patriotic 
is admitted ought to know, that the con- citizen of Kentucky, with about seven- 
spirators discussed and agreed upon a ty men forced this unexpected question 
plan for a provisional government last upon the President and Cabinet. You 
winter at Washington, that their plan all remember that Major Anderson was 
was to seize the Capitol and public ar- iu command at Fort Moultrie, that hig 
chives, and prevent by force the inau- position was such that a land attack by 
guration of Mr. Lincoln at the seat of the rebels could not be prevented. He 
government ; and by thus getting pos- had no orders from his government to 
session of the National Capitol and in- remove to Fort Sumpter and could ob- 
augurating Mr. Davis at Washington, tain no reinforcements, although he ask- 
they hoped to sccure an early recogni- ed for them. So he assumed the re- 
tion of their Government by some of sponsibility in the face of a government 
the resident Foreign Ministers, many of which he must have regarded as false to 
whom they believed then and still be- its highest duties, and whose commands 
lieve favorable to their schemes. he also knew he must obey. 

And here let me mention in passing a The conspirators had approached Ma- 
fact worthy of note. The Foreign resi- jor Anderson in every conceivable man- 
dent Ministers at Washington, are most- ner — they had feasted and flattered him ; 
ly from the aristocratic and wealthy Eu- but he could not be seduced from his 
ropean famihcs, and sympathise and as- allegiance. He was watched and could 
sociate with that class everywhere. make no movement. The public arms 

A majority of the Southern Senators and property of the Government in the 
and Representatives while professing to city of Charleston they would not per- 
be democrats are, if possible, more aris- mit him to touch, and he saw that if 
toci'atic than these foreign ministers. — any movement was made to save the 
The result is, that their social inter- honor of the Government, it would 
course at Washington, is almost exclu- have to be done by strategy and on his 
sively with Southern members who do own responsibility,a responsibility which 
not hesitate openly to denounce all you and I most heartily thank him for 
Northern men as cowards, poltroons havmg assumed, (Applause.) He was 
and money-getters, who can be Ibought invited to dine with a number of the 
as cheap as their own slaves. chief conspirators on Christmas last and 

The great body of the Northern Sen- accepted. After dinner toasts and 
ators and Representatives are poor, and speeches were the order of the evening, 
owing to the short time they remain or All the power of the conspirators was 
expect to remain in iDongress, they do exhausted to induce the Major to be- 
not, with but few exceptions, care to come a traitor, but to no puvpose. Re- 
form the acquaintance of foreign minis- port has it that he feigned intoxication 
ters. So you see that our government so well that he was conveyed in a car- 
at home has not only ])een controlled riage to his head-quarters at Ft. Moul- 
but our foreign policy cunningly shaped trie. The rebel conspirators returned 
by Southern men and the minds of the to concoct new schemes to seduce this 
resident foreign ministers prepared, not loyal and patriotic soldier, and while 
only for this rebellion, but tor its success, they were thus conspiring — in the dark- 
and tliis is the secret of the ill-disguised ness of the night, he quietly gives his 
sympathy of so many resident foreign orders and a few small boats are made 
Ministers with the rebels. ready— all the i)ro visions and munitions 

This infamous conspiracy was defeat- they can carry are put on board and af- 
ed by unlocked for dissensions in their ter spiking the cannon in Fort Moultrie, 
own ranks and by no sagacity, foresight he, with his little band of brave spirits, 
or precaution on the part either of Mr. step onboard their boats, and with 
Buchanan or the representatives of the muffled oars pull off to Fort Sumpter, 
people. and when the conspirators awoke in tlie 

Fortunatelyfor the cause of the Union morning the National flag is seen float- 
but unfortunately for the conspirators, ing from that supposed impregnable for- 
dissensions arose in the Cabmet on the tress. (Loud applause.) When the 
question of re-enforcing Fort Sumpter. rebels ^aw this, they were amazed and 



12 



swore more terribly than the army in 
FlanderB. The telegraph soon brought 
this glorious news to Washington and I 
need not tell you how it made glad the 
hearts of all true Union men. Party 
was thought of no longer. The rebels 
telegraphed to Mr. Buchanan and de- 
manded an order for Major Anderson's 
immediate return from Fort Sumpter to 
Fort Moultrie, and to our shame be it 
said that many northern men miited 
with the rebels in seconding their de- 
mands. Among this class of men none 
were more offensively conspicuous than 
Senator Bright, of Ind. 

On the simple proposition ot remfor- 
cing Major Anderson and preserving the 
national honor, a division arose m the 
Cabinet, — a majority voting with the 
President not to reinforce. You will 
agree with me I know, when I say that 
every man who so voted was either a 
rebel conspirator or a tool in their hands. 
When this disgraceful decision was made 
Gen'l Cass, to his honor be it said, refused 
onger to remain in the Cabinet of a Pres- 
ident who proved himself to be either 
a traitor or a coward, and perhaps both. 
(Applause.) This unexpected resigna- 
ton of Secretary Cass, was soon follow- 
ing by the resignation of the traitor 
Cobb — and subsequently by the resig- 
nation of Floyd and Thompson — owing 
to the disclosures made by a confiden- 
tial clerk of the theft of the $800,000 
of Indian bondn. Happily for the coun- 
try, Dix and Holt, Stan; on and King, 
loyal and true democrats, Avere called 
to fill these imexpected vacancies in the 
Cabinet, and thus the scheme to seize 
Washington City and inaugurate their 
rebel government there, was defeated, 
because the patriot Holt was Secretary 
of War, and a majority of the Cabinet 
were now true to the Union. (Applause.) 

Being thus unexpectedly foiled, the 
conspirators abandoned their design of 
seizing Washington and preventing the 
inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, and resor- 
ted to every expedient to deceive the 
country and throw the people oft their 
guard as to their real intentions. For 
this purpose the most noisy and unscru- 
pulous did not hesitate to declare in the 
House and at the public hotels, that 
Mr. Lincoln was the constitutionally 
elected President, and should be inaug- 



urated if it had to be done over their 
lifeless bodies. 

Mr. Breckinridge also ;inited with 
them in declaring publicly that he would 
not only count the electoral votes as 
prescribed by law, (you will remember 
that the secession papers. North and 
South declared that they would not be 
counted,) and proclaim Mr. Lincoln the 
constitutionally elected President, but 
that he intended to take his seat in the 
Senate of the United States, to which 
he had just been elected by the loyal 
State of Kentucky, and swear to sup- 
port the constitution and the constitu- ' 
tional government, and I saw him with 
uplifted hand take that oath. 

This deception blinded many of the 
Northern representatives and people, 
who unitedly praised Mr. Breckenridge 
for his patriotism and loyalty. How 
worthily it was bestowed, let his subse- 
quent conduct in the Senate and else- 
where, and his present position speak. 

At last, the 4th of March came, and 
Mr. Lincoln was peacefully inaugurated 
on the eastern portico of the national 
Capitol in the presence of thousands ot 
loyal citizens and friends. 

The conspirators now resorted to new 
strategems to deceive and mislead the 
government. They approached Mr. 
Lincoln as Union men, professing devo- 
tion to the Constitution and great anx- 
iety for the success of his administra- 
tion. But they all, with one voice, uni- 
ted in declaring that any attempt on 
the part of the government to send sol- 
diers to any part of the South to pro- 
tect the National property, would pre- 
cipitate them all intoa revolution. The 
President was told that he must not at- 
tempt to reinforce Fort Sumpter — that 
he must not send troops to protect the 
Norfolk Navy Yard with its millions of 
property, that troops must not be sent 
to Harper's Ferry to guard the Nation- 
al Armory, and if he did, the whole 
State of Virginia would be driven into 
a revolution. For six long and weary 
weeks these men deceived and prevent- 
ed the government from doing as I 
think it would have done, but for them. 
I need not tell you how I protested 
against the government listening to the 
counsels of these men — much less heed- 
ing them. You know the result — the 
Norfolk Navy Yard Avas lost. Harper's 



13 

Ferry was lost, and the very Capitol of all parties patnotically volunteered to 
the nation was imperiled. defend the Constitution and the Union. 

The Cabinet under the advice of Gen. Until then, I did not know how full the 
Scott, voted to withdraw Major Ander- nation was of the old leaven ol 1776. — 
ion from Fort Sumpter, and thus sur- Until then I had no idea of the immense 
render it to the rebels. moral power of the bayonet. 

On the part of some of our best mil- The President called Congress togeth- 
itary men, this course was urged because er on the 4th of July, and asked for 
the Buchanan administration had per- 400,000 men and $400,000,000 of raon- 
mitted the Fort to be so environed with ey to put down the rebellion, and we 
armed batteriei, that it was said rein- gave him 500,000 men and 1500,000,000. 
forcements could not be put into the How the citizens in the loyal states have 
Fort with less than 40,000 men. In this responded to the call of Congress and 
trying emergency, everything now de- the President, you know. Never in all 
pended on the decision of the President, the history of the world, from the days 
and nobly did he meet the responsibili- of Alexander and Cjesar to Napoleon, 
ty. You and I honor him for his decis- has any nation of eighteen millions of 
ion. He said, " Never by an order from people been able to put an army ot 
my hand^ while I am President^ shall 500,000 men into the field armed and 
the Stars and Stripes be struck to a reb- equipped as we have, in five months. — 
el foeP'' (Long applause.) This im- This fact of itself is a guarantee of our 
pulsive and patriotic declaration ot the success if the Government but does its 
President, in my judgment, saved the duty. 

life of the nation, and whatever blund- The conduct of Breckenridge, Bright 
ers he may have committed, or shall and others, in the Senate, of Burnet and 
hereafter commit, this brave and noble others in the House after the new ad- 
act ought and with me, shall excuse a ministration came into power, is proof 
multitude of mistakes, positive, that these men were either in 

When asked what he proposed to do, sympathy or complicity with the trai- 
he answered, that " the viorld will ex- tors who were conspiring to destroy the 
pectus to 2)rovisio7i our soldiers^ lohile in government, at the very moment they, 
the faith/til discharge of their duty^ with uplifted hand, were swearing to 
and I intend to notify the authorities at support and defend it. 
Charleston that the troops in It. Siimp- I might quote by the hour from speech- 
ter will be fully provisioned by sending es of the leading rebels since the out- 
an unarmed vessel to the Fort.'''' The break of this rebellion to sustain the 
vessel was dispatched and when within position which I have so elaborately for- 
sight of the Fort she was fired upon tified by fact after fact ; but I am sure 
from the rebel batteries, and compelled you will agree with me, thatit isunnec- 
to put to sea. Thus day after day all essary. I will only detain you long- 
hope of a peaceable solution of our dif- enough on this point to make two or 
Acuities was dispelled, and when all hope three short quotations which I think it 
of reinforcing the Fort seemed to be important to submit in this connection, 
given up and Major Anderson only had The first is from Alexander H. Stephens, 
one or two day's rations of salt pork for the Vice-President of the rebel govern- 
his handful of men, at the expiration of ment. Mr. Stephens, I suppose you all 
which time the rebels knew he must know to be one of the fairest and most 
surrender, they opened their fire upon conservative men in the entire South, 
that patriotic band, and they were com- and a man of the first order of talents, 
pelled to surrender. This act sealed the In speaking of the principles on which 
doom of the traitors. The North here- the Southern Confederacy was formed 
tofore divided, were now united, and this summer, he said : 
every patriotic Union man gave up par- 
ty for country " That its foundations were laid— that its 

I need not detail to you the stirring corner-stone ^T^J^f «;^^ "Z,^; S';;';jJ,^;f_^^^^^^ 

1 • u x- 11 1 mv 11 c 4-[ Slavery subordmation to the supeuoi race — 

events which followed. The call ot the ^^^ ^^^ Negro's natural condition ; that the 

President for 75,000 men, the alacrity Confederacy was founded on these principles, 

with which hundreds of thousands ot and that this stone, which was rejected by the 



14 



first builders, had, in their new edifice, be- 
come the chief stone of the corner." 

The foundation stone upon which 
Washington and the patriots of the rev- 
olution built, is rejected by the leaders 
in this rebellion, and if Mr. Stephens 
speaks truly, the foundation upon which 
the conspirators build, is Slavery. Yet 
in the face of such statements and all 
the- facts I have enumerated, politicians 
and newspaper editors attempt to de- 
ceive and mislead the people by declar- 
ing that slavery has nothing whatever 
to do with this rebellion. 

Senator Brown, of Mississippi, a col- 
league of Jefferson Davis, openly de- 
clared that he not only demanded a 
Southern Confederacy, but that he wan- 
ted "Cuba, Mexico and Central Ameri- 
ca for the planting and spread of Slave- 
ry, so that like the religion of our divine 
Master, it may spread to the uttermost 
ends of the earth." 

Mr. Clay, of Alabama, declared in a 
speech at Montgomery, last winter, that, 
" A cordon of Free States must never_ be 
permitted to surround the God-given institu- 
tion of Slavery— the beautiful tree must not 
be thus girdled that it may witlier and die.'] 

And the leading organ of the conspir- 
ators for May of this year, DeBow's 
Review, not only declares "that the 
foundation of the new Confederacy had 
for its corner-stone, slavery,'' but defen- 
ded and justified the enslavement eve- 
rywhere of the entire laboring popula- 
tion, declaring " that the social condi- 
tion of England and the world would 
be infinitely better if the laboring clas- 
ses were doinestic slaves.''^ 

Are these starthng facts new to you? 
they are old familiar acquaintances of 
mine, and I have repeated most of them 
over and over again, many times in this 
Congressional District. Do you ask in 
wonder how such unholy combinations 
could be made against the very life of 
the Nation without exciting the open 
hostility of every patriot and true Union 
man in the Republic? I answer that it 
has been and is mainly the fault of Nor- 
thern politicians who have either been 
ignorant of the existence of such treas- 
onable movements, or with a guilty 
knowledge have kept them from the 
people. 

It is not, however, improbable that 
the great body of Northern representa- 
tives have been entirely ignorant for the 



past twenty years of these acts, althougl 

often acting and voting with the oenspira 

tors and in aid of th«ir ulterior designs 

This could not well be otherwise Si- 

long as the two sections should adher< 

to their present pohcy, or rather theii 

want of poUcy in salecting and oontinu 

ing their representatives at WashingtoE 

The South selects her best men, men o 

talents and ability who are true to he ! 

interest and retains them so long as the;! 

are faithful. They thus become acquair 

ted with the entire workings of th I 

government. The North sends wit 

rare exceptions an entire new set ( 

men every two or four years. Many ( 

these men are not only without ability 

but what is still more lamentable, me 

who, under the pretext of partynecej 

sity, sacrifice the interest of their ow 

constituents. If rejected by the peopl 

at the close of one term for their treacl 

ery, a pro-slavery administration has a 

ways provided them with some compel 

sation for their services, and thus froi 

year to year the North has been use 

and disgraced, simply because of tl 

inefficiency or want of fidelity of the 

representatives. 

The South understands this matt' 
better. She selects men who are n< 
only true, but able ; and retains the 
in position until they become famili; 
Avith the workings of every departmei 
of the government, and in time th( 
not' only become representative me 
but absolutely control, as they ha^ 
done for years, the entire legislation 
the country,- although their section 
largely in the minority. 

the North will have to change th 
custom and adopt such a one aspruden. 
and common sense dictate. Statesmc 
are not extemporized out of the able 
men in a day. Our greatest Generr 
worked their way up gradually fro 
the ranks and our safest and best Ra 
road men commenced at the foot of t' 
ladder. All American statesmen, w( 
thy of the name, have come up fro 
the ranks of the people, and the Sou 
has produced the largest number, sim ■ 
ly|because she has pursued the poli ■ 
of retaining her representatives until 1 
education and experience, they becoi ; 
Statesmen. Do you suppose that 
Northern conspiracy against the gC' 
p-overnment could have been as succe 



15 



fully inaugurated and put into execu- 
tion as- this Southern conspiracy has 
been — that we could have held North- 
' em Conventions, elected Northern State 
, Governors on the direct issue of dissol- 
ving the Union or compelling the South 
to adopt such a National Constitution 
as Ave might dictate without the entire 
j South being familiar with every move- 
ment, and unitedly prepared to resist it? 
I In addition to all this, do you believe 
ithe South would ever have been guilty 
of voting for Northern men Avho were 
,her open and undisguised enemies; that 
'they would ever placed them as we have 
I done, in the most honorable and respon- 
sible positions in the Government. I ask 
;you if you believe it possible for the 
North, with all her boasted knowledge 
to have done as the South have done for 
the past twenty years Avithout every 
Southern representative, not only under- 
standing every movement, under Avhat- 
ever party name or pretext they might 
bave been disguised ; but that their en- 
tire population would also have under- 
stood it and directed their representa- 
tives boldly to meet the issue at the vei-y 
threshold and defeat it, not by compro- 
mising with it, but hj meeting the 
question like men, and by an early and 
proper exposure of the designs of the 
conspirators, nipped their treason in the 
bud ? 

But this secession movement has been 
openly advocated for years and its 
3hampions have been placed by North- 
3rn votes and Northern Presidents not 
only in the Cabinet, but in the most 
honorable and responsible positions of 
Lhe Government. If able and true men 
pointed out the danger, as did John 
Quincy Adams, their voices would be 
Irownedby the din of commerce and 
the cry of demagogues, who either for 
bhe sake of party or office, or the prom- 
ise of office, would in proportion to their 
ignorance, denounce Avith increased A^e- 
liemence, all such statements as unqual- 
ifiedly false and only made to injure 
their party. For the sake of party 
and the hope of securing some petty of- 
fice for tAvo or four years, ignorant and 
corrupt men have usurped in the name 
of the people the management of polit- 
ical conventions, and the great interests 
of the country have been made subordi- 
Qate to the ambitions of men whose 



whole lives gave assurances of their un- 
fitness for responsible positions. 

Because of this state of things, the 
North, although superior in point of 
wealth, population and intelligence have 
been made the " hcAvers of wood and 
draAvers of water" for the South. Do 
you ask when this state state of things 
shall forever cease? I answer that 
it Avill cease as this rebellion aa'III cease, 
whenever a united people earnestly Avillp 
it, and not before. 

That the over prudent, the timid and 
the indifferent, Avith the trickster and 
demagogue Avill join Avith coAvardly 
hunkerism in condemnmg the manner in 
which I am treating this subject. I do 
not doubt, and I do not object. In my 
opinion, this is no time for honied phra- 
ses, and I have therefore called things 
by their right names. This is a Avar 
about slavery and you and I know it. — 
The South declare that our unconstitu- 
tional interference Avith slavery is the 
cause of this rebellion. For this Ave are 
indicted at the bar of public opinion and 
required to plead "guilty" or not "guil- 
ty." Instead of responding promptly, 
and manfully, and truthfiiUy, "not guil- 
ty," all Hunkerdom holds its breath for 
fear of offending its Southern brethren, 
and demands that Ave shall plead to any- 
thing else than that with Avhich we are 
charged in the rebel indictment. Will 
any lawyer tell me how Ave are to defend 
ourselves ? Wliat shall be our reply t© 
this charge? We may plead all our 
sins of omission and commission, but that 
Avill not do. Silence on the 9nly tiis- 
tinct charge made in the indictment 
against us is an admission of our guilt. 
It is all any rebel can ask. It is sub- 
stantially sjiying to the world that the 
South is right and the North is Avrong. 
Therefore tor one I plead "not guilty," 
and "put myself upon the country." — 
Suppose, instead of the charge of im- 
proper interference Avith slavery, the 
North Avere charged in the rebel indict- 
ment Avith unconstitutionally interfering 
with the rights of the Soutli on the 
question of the Tariff, or Pacific Rail- 
road, or the question of representation, 
or any one of the many questions Avhich 
have divided political parties in this 
country? Would prudent but timid 
friends be found then, as noAv, uniting 
with the political trickster and the 



16 



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demagogue in secouding the demand of 
Hunkerism that we should not only not 
plead to that with which we were charged 
but that we should aot even dissent or 
publicly allude to the matter at issue ? 
-How can a statesman, who is guided by 
the principles of justice or even by po- 
litical expediency, demand of any ra- 
tional people anything so irrational or 
idiotic as debate and answer to charges 
without any reference to the subject 
matter of the charges ? 

If this rebellron had resulted from a 
conspiracy on the part of the great body 
of Railroad corporations, or Banks, or 
Manufacturing interests in the United 
States, because the General or State 
Governments had refused to comply 
with their demands, do you suppose 
there would have been any such hesita- 
tion on the part of the Government as 
to their duty as there has been towards 
the present rebels ? The old Bank of 
the United States had a capital of only 
fifty millions of dollars, and yet General 
Jackson thought its continued existence 
dangerous to the liberties of the people, 
because he knew it subsidized the public 
press, controlled party conventions, and, 
with it's gold, corrupted statesmen and 
divided the nation's chosen guardians 
and counsellors. He thereupon crushed 
it out, and the nation applauded him. — 
The number of rebel slaveholders in the 
United States does not exceed 250,000 
men, women and minor children, all 
told. Of this number not more than 
200,000 are voters, and yet they claim 
that that their capital in slaves is worth 
two thousand millions of dollars. If fifty 
millions of dollars in the hands of a bank 
was dangerous to the Uberties of the 
people, how much more dangerous is 
two thousand millions of dollars in the 
hands of slaveholders, who are enemies 
to the Government ? For the protec- 
tion of this properry, as they claim ih to 
be, they have demanded special legisla- 
tion and constitutional guarantees which 
the people would not grant, and because 
of the refusal, this small but powerful 
class have made this war upon the Gov- 
ernment. Suppose the great majority 
of the bankers of the United States (and 
the bank stockholders are really a more 
numerous class than the rebel slavehold- 
ers) were to combine and demand an 
amendment to the Constitution, grant- 



ing them perpetual charters, with the 
right to suspend specie payment when- 
ever, in their opinion, the interests of the 
banks demanded it, and suppose the peo- 
ple should refuse to give them such a 
dangerous grant of power, and, because 
of this refusal, they should imite in a 
conspu-acy to destroy the Govermnent 
by making war upon it as the rebel 
slaveholders are now doing, what would 
you, as practical men, do if they, instead 
of the slaveholders, were the rebels ? I 
know what you would demand, and it 
would be done — the leading conspira- 
tors would be arrested and their prop- 
erty confiscated to pay the expenses of 
putting down the rebellion, and thus 
make it impossible for them to get up 
another such rebellion. I would do the 
same with the Railroad conspirators, 
who have more wealth and more men 
interested with them than all the slave- 
holding rebels — I would do the same 
with any combination of men, under the 
same circumstances. The Banking, 
Railroad and Manufacturing interest of 
of the United States each separately 
controls more wealth than all the con- 
spirators now engaged in the rebellion, 
and their institutions are of more im- 
portance to commerce — to civilization 
and good government — than all the 
slaveholders, whether loyal or rebel ; 
and yet, if any one or all of these inter- 
ests were to combine against the Gov- 
ernment, what would be their fate ? — 
Would there be any division among us 
on the question of conducting the war 
against them ? Why then, as practical 
men, should we hesitate as to the course 
to be pursued towards rebel slavehold- 
ers? 

The truth is, prejudice has blinded us 
as a nation so that we will not see our 
duty, and this is the secret of our iuefii- 
ciency and our reverses. How many 
men are there before me who would 
hesitate at confiscating the entire wealth 
of all the corporations in the country — 
whether Banks, Railroads or Manufac- 
tories — if they were combined and in 
rebellion against the Government and 
you believed such action was necessary 
to save the nation's life ? If you would 
do this, would you not also confiscate 
and deprive the present slaveholding 
conspirators of every slave they posses- 
sed, if you believed it necessary for the 



